Abstract: One or more water- and oil-porous containers or sacks are made of a pair of mesh sheets affixed together and stiffened around their perimeter. The sacks can be partially filled with a multitude of tubular bodies made of an oil-entrapping polymer, which have their longest dimension parallel to an axial hole. A preferred material is composed of a combination of SBS and EPDM, formed by an extrusion technique, to create highly fissured generally cylindrical bodies. The sacks may be deployed in areas where oil is floating on water, such as where oil has spilled from tankers on oceans, seas, lakes, or rivers. When the bodies are afloat, oily water can pass through the axial holes of and around the bodies, maximizing the surface area contacted by the oil and minimizing gel blocking. After a time sufficient for the bodies in the sacks to adsorb oil, the sacks can be collected. Various deployment and collection methods are disclosed.

Abstract: A disclosed fluid purity monitoring system employs a network of preferably information-transmissive cables fixed in place within a body of fluid. Sensors sensitive to fluid impurities are supported at various places on the network. Data representative of impurity levels transmits to a collection point via the same cables at which the sensors are supported. One system employs at least two pluralities of sensors sensitive to different fluid impurities. Another system employs electrically conductive cables fixed in place substantially in a common plane, with some cables oriented substantially parallel to each other and intersecting other cables. In that system, the data transmits to the collection point via a separate electrical circuit for each one of the sensors. Each circuit includes a series connection of the pair of cables that intersect proximate to the sensor's support point on the network. Advantageous variations and methods are also disclosed.